Hands-on: How to digitize a dinosaur with HP 3D Capture

3D imaging used to happen on powerful workstations. Watch it happen here on a comparatively simple Sprout PC and the new 3D Capture Stage, turning a simple toy into a 3D image for printing, animation or other projects.

3D imaging for normal people

There’s a reason why you need special computers and applications to do 3D imaging: It’s a process, and a data-intensive one, at that. Even HP’s Sprout PC, which was designed for imaging work, struggled to render 3D images when we tried it at the Getgeeked event on Thursday night in San Francisco.

To be fair, the process worked—just slowly. The new 3D Capture technology (check out the video!) is in beta and doesn’t ship until July, and it's still doing things no other PC can do. Here's what it looks like in action.

The Sprout takes the first of many images

The Sprout's Intel RealSense cameras take depth-sensing images of the dinosaur toy. On the right you can see part of a Dremel 3D printer, where full 3D images could be turned into real objects. (Unfortunately we were unable to try this during our hands-on.)

The shape of things to come

A dinosaur on the diagonal

This looks like film noir, but it's actually the Intel RealSense cameras in the Sprout, photographing the contours of the dinosaur toy. The 3D Capture Stage rotates the toy at an angle to expose the sides to the cameras.

The 3D Capture Stage connects to the Sprout via USB and can fit objects up to 8 inches cubed.

The software looks at all sides

You can see onscreen how the 3D Capture software has picked up a detailed image of the dinosaur's side and underbelly. When I tried the Sprout earlier this year, it couldn't handle objects that were black or shiny. That's been fixed now, I'm told, but it still prefers rigid objects to squishy ones.

Turn the dinosaur for even scanning

It's not over yet! HP's Brad Short repositions the dinosaur toy for another phase of scanning. You need to do this to make sure all sides are scanned thoroughly. The 3D Capture Stage and the software walk you through the process. "Some professionals who've seen our system are envious of how much easier it is than their own applications," Short commented.

A dinosaur today, criminal evidence tomorrow

The digital dinosaur is starting to fill out as the 3D Capture Stage takes more sides of the toy. But this isn't all fun and games: HP demonstrators told me that the Sprout was gaining a following in hospitals for patient education, and police stations for cataloguing evidence.